Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Another excerpt from Serenity

What do you mean, you don’t accept negative programming?

Cartoon by Chuck Vadun, used by permission.

Excerpt from Serenity, Conari Press, by Jane Nelsen (available at

The Brain as a Computer
The brain is like a computer (not really, but you’ll get the point) that requires software to be useful and a person who understands how to operate it. Using your programmed thought system is the same as using old, outdated software full of bugs. And it can be as frustrating as trying to operate a computer without understanding the basic principles or reading the instructions. Both produce unsatisfactory results, to say the least. You are now reading an instruction manual to gain an understanding of the principles that can help you eliminate or bypass old, outdated software in your thought system. 

Many people do not realize that their thoughts and beliefs from the past are not them, just as software is not the computer. I have seen several versions of a cartoon showing a person smashing a computer because it wouldn’t work properly. When we take our illusionary thoughts and beliefs seriously, we are using as much sense as the cartoon character. We forget that it is not our hearts and souls that are full of bugs. It is our thought system that is full of bugs and we smash ourselves instead of fixing our software. The wonderful part of this analogy is that simple awareness (understanding) is all it takes to fix our software—to eliminate the bugs that keep us from experiencing our inherent joy.
If you are like many who first hear this principal, your mind may be going crazy right now be-cause you are trying to figure it out from your thought system instead of your heart. As Einstein said:


Computer buffs know what happens when they try to feed new information into a software program not designed to understand it: the computer beeps and flashes error messages, or even worse, “fatal error.” A software program simply cannot accept what it is not designed to accept.
Your brain often does the same thing with new information that could be very useful to you. When you try to filter this information through your thought system, it beeps and says, “Wrong!” Fortunately, you have something a computer does not have—a heart full of inner wisdom to let you know what new information is useful to improve your life and relationships and what information is not useful. However, you don’t have access to your inner wisdom until you dismiss your thought system—which happens automatically when you truly understand the principle of thinking as a function. Dismissing your thought system does not leave a void; it clears your channel to your inner wisdom so your thinking ability can be used to express your natural good feelings and messages from your heart.

It is such fun to hear from someone who has been touched by one of my books. Today I received the following email:

I came by your book "Understanding" in 2002/3. [now titled Serenity]

I still go "off course" and have to re-read the book sometimes and try to get quiet again, however, I would like to congratulate you on writing what I believe to be one of, if not the best book to date I have ever had the pleasure to read.

Ray, UK


Anonymous said...

I saw few people, who are impatient with computer. also, at my college, many students admitted how they kicked or slammed it. This is amusing to me because many people are letting the technology to upset them.

Amit said...
